We’ve recently bought a truck satellite navigation GPS device for under £70! It’s given us motorhome-specific route planning options we expected to pay much more for. Read on for our thoughts on using a budget truck satnav for your motorhome satnav.
Quick Thoughts: Using an OHREX Satnav for a Motorhome
Keeping it simple, the OHREX Truck Satnav is, so far at least, doing the job for us. When our ancient, well-travelled TomTom finally died on our way home from Spain in March, we needed a replacement GPS and were amazed when we found we could get one designed for trucks for under £70. It doesn’t specifically have a ‘motorhome’ setting, but calculates routes for any size of van, motorhome or truck. At that price, could it be any good?
The answer for us is yep, it’s a good bit of kit for that kind of money. Let me not oversell it though, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like live traffic, live fuel prices or weather, it can’t be updated over WiFi and the suction screen mount isn’t as well made as our TomTom one was. It feels solid enough, if a bit plasticky in places, specifically the windscreen mount. In the end it does all the stuff we want though:
- It’s got UK and European maps, including Turkey (but not Russia, sorry folks!), with free lifetime updates.
- It lets us enter the dimensions and weight of our van and creates better routes for our motorhome than our old car satnav did.
- It has all the stuff we normally use on a satnav: lane assist, GPS co-ordinates entry, ability to avoid toll roads, speed limit indicator & fixed speed camera alerts.
- The screen’s big (7 inches) & responsive.
- It does other stuff like connect to a reversing camera (OHREX sell a few types, all under £40) but we don’t use one so haven’t tested this.
There are some downsides to buying at the cheaper end of the market of course. The instructions aren’t as good as they might be and we don’t expect the same level of support we might get from TomTom or Garmin say. It remains to be seen how easy it is to update the maps, and we’ll see how well the satnav copes with the demands of motorhome tours: getting baked in the sun, cold at night and the inevitable bit of being bashed around. We’ll update this post as we discover more.
Testing for OHREX Motorhome-Friendly Routes
Changing from the TomTom meant we had to get used to the different screen layout, and we spent a bit of time playing with the map colours and other options to get it the way we wanted it. With that done it didn’t take long to get comfortable that the OHREX works just fine as a satnav.
We’ve never used a truck/motorhome satnav before though, apart from testing the CoPilot Caravan smartphone/tablet app, which made us realise that we prefer a dedicated satnav. Given our newbie status with truck satnavs, we were curious just how good it is at choosing routes. I’ll be honest: we’ve not yet tested this in anger, but we have checked whether it would have saved us from our most recent navigation cock-up. Last year we forgot our usual rule to double-check our TomTom’s routes on a paper road atlas, and lost a wing mirror and acquired a few more grey hairs as a result.
On a route from our home near Nottingham to Edale in the Derbyshire Peak District, the TomTom took us down the B6051 and the B6054. On a summer weekend, these narrow roads were busy, lined with parked cars and awkward, needing us to really squeeze past a tractor at one point, not the most relaxing of drives. Our paper map now has written instructions never to use that road again! A slightly longer route uses wide A roads, which we used on the way home and it was stress-free.
Cutting to the chase, the OHREX chose the best route when we plotted in Edale and gave the dimensions and weight of our motorhome. Even when we changed from the ‘Easy’ to ‘Shortest’ route planning option it didn’t use those nasty, bitey B roads. It came up with a warning message that trucks aren’t allowed on the (tiny) road into Edale itself, which doesn’t apply to motorhomes, but we could just ignore the warning and take that route anyway.
So we’re impressed so far! Until we’ve built up more confidence in the OHREX we’ll stick to some hard-learned route planning lessons though (unless we forget to…):
- checking the overall route against a paper map,
- avoiding smaller roads in bad weather or summer weekends, or when there’s a better-graded slightly longer road,
- looking out for low bridges,
- ignoring cross-country satnav shortcuts (especially if they don’t have our main destination sign-posted) when A roads might be longer but easier.
More Well-Reviewed Budget Truck (Motorhome) Satnavs
There are a load more options for truck satnavs available on Amazon, some cheaper than the OHREX and some a few pounds more. We’ve linked to some of those which have plenty of 4* and 5* reviews below.
I purchased something similar a few years back for £38. Updates were via a fashion web site, oooerrr ! Actually did a decent job but then no more updates. Main issue was the poor quality screen being very reflective especially on a sunny day. (Not a problem in this country of course.) There was a clip on shade provided but it wasn’t much of an improvement. As a back up I’d run “Here maps” offline which is my main route finder nowadays. In other words we “wing it” !
Great to see you guys save and sound after your Covid travels.
£38! Wow! Maybe the extra £30-odd went on better-quality screens these days – ours has been easily viewable but it’s not exactly been glaring sunlight beating down on us all in Blighty these past few weeks as you’ve noticed :-). We’ll pop an update on here when we come to updating ours, but to be honest it can’t be any more painful than our TomTom, which (aged as it was) cuased us no-end of headaches over the years with the maps being wiped, corrupted, refusing to connect to the laptop etc etc. Cheers, happy travels! Jay
Hi. We bought a similar variant of the same one. A huge bonus was the Facebook group Nozatec Truck Satnav as they have lots of updated maps and POI’s for free and help if needed. Have had ours 9 months but still not confident as at times it has taken us some really bad routes. We have our dimensions and weight keyed in and usually go for the economical route. Still enjoy map reading and have google maps as a back up. Resort to not initially going down any road that looks iffy. Previously had the Garmin Camper Sat which was overall better but not worth the extra money IMO. As mentioned by someone else we do find the screen difficult to see in bright sunlight. Hope this helps others. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1510939042556385
Well I visited a few forums before I discovered the NozaTec FB group yesterday.
Should have waited til today !
I’m going in ! I have a complete mental block with navigating FB. It’s a fossil thing 😉
Hi Jason & Jules, anything to add on your experience with this satnav after another 8 months use? I realise you haven’t done any long trips since then, but thought it worth asking.
Thanks
Hi Chris
Generally it’s been a good purchase. We’ve not tried updating it yet and that’s probably the biggest downside: it’s really not obvious how to do it. We’ve also found we can’t get it to show some speed limits in mph (they come up as kph) and, thinking we’re in a lorry, it will warn us when our route doesn’t allow HGVs. The interface is a tad confusing too when you’re searching for a location but once you’re used to it it’s fine. Overall I think it’s a decent satnav for the price and I’d buy it again.
Cheers, Jay
2.5 weeks into our first trip with the Ohrex, following in your footsteps round Brittany and now on Île de Re. Really pleased with the Ohrex, so much clearer to follow than the built-in Fiat one. Only one route so far where the roads have seemed a bit too narrow. Overall, a great recommendation, so thanks Jason.
Great stuff, glad it’s working well for you Chris, cheers, Jay
Such a insightful quick overview of using an OHREX satnav for a motorhome! Your thoughts on the practical aspects and usability are truly appreciated. It’s clear that you’ve taken the time to explore the device thoroughly. The convenience and functionality of a dedicated satnav for motorhomes can make a significant difference in the overall travel experience. Your insights provide valuable guidance for fellow motorhome enthusiasts who are looking for efficient navigation solutions. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and shedding light on the advantages of incorporating an OHREX satnav into the motorhome journey!